Sonic Mach Cones Induced by Fast Partons in a Perturbative Quark-Gluon Plasma

Abstract

We derive the space-time distribution of energy and momentum deposited by a fast parton traversing a weakly coupled quark-gluon plasma by treating the fast part on as the source of an external color field perturbing the medium. We then use our result as a source term for the linearized hydrodynamical equations of the medium. We show that the solution contains a sonic Mach cone and a dissipative wake if the parton moves at a supersonic speed.

Comments: Final version accepted for publication